Review: Mouth of the Serpent – Manifest

We have done some coverage of Mouth of the Serpent in the past and if my memory serves me correctly I was impressed with their blend of harshness and vileness. I don’t know if the band takes that as a compliment, but quite frankly if you need a sound track to put your neighbor in the wood chipper, than Mouth of the Serpent can easily provide that.

The new EP Manifest contains 5 tracks of more blood in the motor action and one intro that quite literally made me white knuckle on my desk for the anticipation of evil it created. Not to take away from their work, but the 37 seconds of the intro Caraven is one of my favorite parts.

The intro leads into Cisterna with harsh vocals in such a deep growl I simply wrote the word sick. We do hear a higher screech that gives the song a very classic vibe, but overall the song is dominated by these deep vocals and the incredible use of it in tandem with the drums.

My favorite track on the EP is Entheogen and it’s quick thrash based open. I always love bands that pay homage to the beginnings of death metal with a quick shout out to the thrashers. The song goes into a dueling like vocals performance that almost feels like the two vocalists are competing with each other. The only PROBLEM with that is only one vocalist is credited on the album. Max Reis appears to be playing both vocal pieces and he does a great job of distinguishing between the two.

The realization of one vocalist does show me how Mouth of the Serpent manages to make the little pieces of evil they do: they are sociopaths that are able to take on other personalities and feel no remorse for attempting to blow my head off.

That was just a little fun! The music does sound evil and almost like the guys only had one hour in the studio to complete their works, but in all honesty; if I had something this diabolical inside me I would want it out as soon as possible.

All the evil aside I do have to throw my horns in the air for this release. Head over to www.mouthoftheserpent.com for details. Just remember to listen to Manifest with some holy water in your rum and a nun on your bed.